Their Es^qs and Nests. 1 1 



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HAWFINCH— ( Coccothraustes vulgaris). 



Common Grosbeak, Haw Grosbeak. — A bird which 

 seems to occur less sparingly in our island than was 

 supposed. For long it was taken to be merely a 

 winter visitor. It is not uncommon about Epping 

 Forest, and has been found nearer London, and in 

 many of the Southern counties. It has bred frequently 

 of late years in this county (York). Mr. Doubleday has 

 given a good account of its habits generally, as well 

 as of its nest and eggs. It seems to have no peculiar 

 situation for its nest preferred to all others, but builds 

 indiscriminately in trees or bushes, and at various 

 heights from the ground. The nest is said to be made 

 of twigs, " with fibrous roots and grey lichens laid flat 

 on them ; " the whole structure being such as to re- 

 mind one of the Ring Dove's flat platform of a nest. 

 The eggs " vary from four to six, and are of a pale 

 olive-green, spotted with black, and streaked with 

 dusky grey." Mr. Doubleday adds, that some are 

 much less marked than others. A few, indeed, with 

 no marks at all on the green ground-colour. — Fig. 9, 

 plate I V. 



GREENFINCH— ((f^r^^//^r^;/j/£:j cJiloris). 



Green Grosbeak, Green Linnet, Green Bird.— A 

 sufficiently common species, and often seen in winter, 

 on stubbles which aflurd a sufticiency of the seed-con- 

 stituents of its food, in large flocks. Neither does it 

 yield an insignificant portion of the ^^g spoils of the 

 country-boy. The nest is usually built in a hedge, 

 and it dearly loves a thick massive thorn hedge for 

 tlie })urpose. In one such, bordering an orchard in 



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